


Stars

by Dacacis



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25556881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dacacis/pseuds/Dacacis
Summary: “Mommy, the stars don’t look right.”Sarai looked down at her four year old son, Callum, who had come to a complete stop in the castle courtyard and was staring up at the night sky, his jacket lying on the ground behind him.  “Oh?  What looks off about them, sweetie?”Callum looked from the sky over to his mother.  “Well, they don’t look wrong for you,” He scrunched up his face and waved his hands up and down in frustration.  “They look wrong for me.  I don’t belong here.”
Relationships: Callum & Sarai (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Rayla & Sarai (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 84





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The “Stars” one-shot prompt got this idea into my head, and it wouldn’t leave until I wrote it out. 

“Mommy, the stars don’t look right.”

Sarai looked down at her four year old son, Callum, who had come to a complete stop in the castle courtyard and was staring up at the night sky, his jacket lying on the ground behind him. “Oh? What looks off about them, sweetie?”

Callum looked from the sky over to his mother. “Well, they don’t look wrong for you,” He scrunched up his face and waved his hands up and down in frustration. “They look wrong for me. I don’t belong here.” 

“Callum we’ve talked about this, the castle is our home now. You  _ do _ belong here.” She knelt in front of him, wrapping his coat back around his shoulders and taking his hands in hers, “I know it’s a big change, becoming a prince and moving into a castle, but growing up, and even life as a grown up, is always full of changes and surprises. The castle is a big change, your new step dad is a big change, and in about five months, your new younger sibling will be the biggest change. Being an older brother is a big responsibility, and your little sibling will need you to be here to help them grow up, no matter who they end up being. Are you up for helping?”

Callum looked down at the ground and shrugged the coat back off his shoulders “Mommy it’s too warm for a jacket.”

Sarai frowned. It was definitely not too warm for a jacket — it was a chilly fall night, and this breeze was no joke. “Sweetie, it’s really cold out here. You’ll get sick if you don’t wear your jacket, and you know what that means… medicine.”

“But the moonlight is so warm.”

Sarai’s frown deepened and she pressed her hand to the back of Callum’s forehead. “Are you feeling sick Callum? You do feel a bit warm…”

“I’m not sick!” Callum yelled, stepping back from her and stomping his foot down into the ground. Sarai relaxed a bit, standing up and ruffling his hair. 

“Well, we’ll let the doctor have the final say on that in the morning. For now, let’s go inside and get you ready for bed. I’m sure the doctor will agree you’re not sick if you get enough sleep.” Sarai turned and started slowly walking back towards the door closest to the bedrooms. After about ten steps, when she didn’t hear Callum start to follow her, she turned and looked back at him. He was staring up at the stars again, in the same place she’d left him. “Callum don’t make me say it again, it’s…”

At that moment, Callum looked away from the stars and made eye contact with her, and she saw fear in his eyes. Fear that was completely out of place on a four year old’s face. “Mommy they’re coming!” He yelled, looking towards the west gate into the courtyard. She couldn’t help but follow his gaze, and in that moment, there was a loud CRASH against the wooden gate as it started to splinter. A few seconds later, another crash echoed across the courtyard as the door was smashed open and  _ something  _ came through, landing roughly on the ground. Shaking off her surprise, Sarai sprinted towards her son, as the two guards near the gate drew their weapons.

The creature looked almost like a statue of a huge man, but with bright orange lines, like magma, covering its skin. It roared, sweeping one of the guards aside with a single swipe of its clawed hand, and began charging towards Callum, who was shuffling himself backwards away from the monster far too slowly for Sarai’s taste. Realizing she didn’t have time to both pick Callum up and change direction to avoid the monster, Sarai pushed all her strength into sprinting forward and flipped herself over Callum’s head, squeezing herself into as small of a cannonball shape as she could before kicking out with both her feet at the same time, using all the strength in her back and leg muscles. Her feet impacted with the monster, presumably in its face as she had intended from the feel of it, and she felt heat against her boots as the blow connected. Harnessing the momentum from connecting with it, she pushed herself backwards, reversing the flip and catching herself with her hands to tumble backwards until she was standing again. The monster skidded backwards on its back before righting itself to stand again. 

Callum had thankfully turned and run, and the creature looked to her as it got up. “Sweetie, get inside!” Sarai yelled. “Find Viren!” Sarai didn’t especially like the High Mage, but he was certainly the best equipped to handle whatever  _ this  _ was.

The other guard — Bartholomew, she believed — charged the monster from behind, swinging his sword down at its head, but the creature turned and caught the guard’s wrist. There was a sickening crunch as its hand connected with Bartholomew’s stomach. The guard dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Okay, so she wasn’t going to out strength this thing, and was unarmed. It had taken down two guards so far, and Sarai could only hope they were not dead. Surviving until reinforcements could arrive seemed like her best bet — the racket this was causing was sure to wake the whole castle, and more guards should be on their way already. The creature let out another roar and charged towards her. Sarai settled into a defensive stance and stood her ground as it charged, waiting until the last second to step out of the way and latch onto its arm. The heat on her hands was nearly unbearable but she forced herself to hold on, twisting as hard as she could in her core to spin herself and the creature around before letting go. The creature stumbled forward onto all fours, scrambling to get back up, and Sarai fell backwards into an off balance somersault. She regained her footing before the creature did, but her hands were definitely burned, and hurt like hell.

This was not going well.

“WE NEED SOME HELP OUT --” before Sarai could finish her yell, she noticed two things. 

First: Callum was still in the courtyard, watching. 

Second: another creature, smaller than the first but still with the same orange glowing lines along its body, was charging right for him, with a sword in its hand. She was at least twenty paces from Callum, and this creature was only five, tops.

She took off running towards him as fast as she could, but there was no way she was going to make it before that creature. Her left foot pound against the ground. Was there anything between them she could try to pick up and throw at it? No, nothing. Her right foot pounded against the ground. Anything she could leap off of to speed herself up? No, nothing. Her left foot pounded against the ground. “HEY, UGLY! I’M COMING FOR YOU!” she yelled as she ran, just to try to get its attention. Her right foot pounded against the ground. It did not turn towards the noise she was making. Sarai let loose a guttural roar as she continued her desperate charge.

As the monster was about to reach him, a blur of movement tackled Callum out of the way. The figure, which seemed human and wore a black cloak with the hood up, twisted in midair to put itself between Callum and the ground, skidding a few feet along its back before rolling around to stand up. “Go Callum, get to your mum!” yelled a female voice. The figure pulled two balisong blades out of her cloak and flicked the blades out from them as Sarai kept running towards her son. Sarai suppressed the urge to scream as she reached Callum and scooped him up with her burned hands. The cloaked figure rolled forward, knocking the legs out from under the monster and sliding her right blade through the creature’s throat in one fluid motion.

Sarai had no time to wonder who the cloaked figure was; she knew the larger monster was right behind her. She turned while running, angling herself towards the closest courtyard door and pushing herself as hard as she could. “Sarai, duck and roll!” called the cloaked figure. She did, her hands still screaming in pain, doing her best to shield Callum from the impact with the ground, and feeling the hot wind rush by above her as the creature presumably clawed at where she’d just been. The cloaked figure charged, swords drawn, towards Sarai, Callum and the monster.

“You get away from them, Kasef!” the figure called. The monster, apparently called a Kasef, roared and the magma on its skin seemed to glow brighter. Even a few feet away as she stood up again, Sarai could feel the heat rolling off the creature. The Kasef looked briefly at the approaching figure, then turned and again began to charge Callum, who was still on the ground. Sarai stepped between them and again readied herself to catch and redirect the creature’s momentum, but it didn’t reach her. The cloaked figure launched herself off of a nearby tree, covering nearly eight feet of distance in less than half a second, and buried her blades in the Kasef’s back. It roared in pain, and reached back behind itself to grab the figure. It missed as she pushed herself up over the swords, but its clawed left hand managed to nab her cloak. Using the cloak like a whip, the Kasef slammed the figure into the ground in front of it, then reeled back and slashed downwards hard with its free claw, the swords still impaled in its back beginning to glow faintly from the heat.

The figure twisted herself out of the cloak, rolling towards Sarai and Callum, and raised to a crouch. She wore dark leather armor, with the familiar red and gold seal of Katolis emblazoned on her chest. Her hair was completely white, and two horns stuck out of the top of her head. She was an elf! A Moonshadow elf, specifically, if Sarai correctly remembered what they were supposed to look like. A moonshadow elf wearing the Katolin crest.

_ None of this makes any sense! _

Sarai shook her head, breaking herself from her surprise and turned towards her son. He was completely transfixed with the elf, a look of pure amazement on his face, as if he’d forgotten everything else going on.

“Callum, run!” the elf called, as she began charging towards the Kasef again.

“Right... right sorry!”

Sarai caught up with her son in two bounds but just as she was about to scoop him up, she heard a simultaneous roar and yell from behind her, and turned instinctively to look. The Kasef dropped to the ground, with one of the elf’s blades now impaled through its head, red hot and slowly melting. The elf’s cloak was wrapped around the handle of the blade, burning. The elf herself rose to her feet, next to the now dead Kasef and looked at Sarai’s son, who had also turned back to watch.

“What’s going on here? Who are you?” Sarai asked, but the elf didn’t respond to her.

“Callum, listen to me. You told me about this moment almost five years ago now for me, and I didn’t quite believe you until now. You’re in the Star Nexus. Your mum and I are both real, and here, but this is your journey. I don’t know what it is, but you said your mum and I can’t beat what’s coming next. You said you need to picture the stars as they should be for you, and see how their light falls everything...”

The elf trailed off as a cloud of purple and black smoke rolled in, shimmering and stabilizing in front of the fallen Kasef, taking on the form of Sarai’s husband, King Harrow, with glowing purple eyes. It started to look towards Callum, but the elf immediately began speaking to it.

“Wha’, are we seriously going in chronological order of horrible magical creatures that tried to kill Callum? I really hate the stars. I guess I should count my blessings we skipped Sol Regum, eh?”

Shadow Harrow drew his sword and moved towards Callum unnaturally quickly. Sarai stepped between them as Shadow Harrow sliced at her son, and caught the sword between her hands, twisting from her core to redirect the motion of the blade and adding spin to make it harder to hold onto the sword. The redirection worked, but Shadow Harrow still firmly held the blade, until the elf went sailing directly through the smokey figure. Sarai felt his hold on the blade vanish.

What happened next was pure instinct -- Sarai had no time to process her decisions. She released the blade, allowing it to spin around in midair until she caught the hilt with both hands. Roaring in pain as her burned hands caught the sword, she slashed down through the smokey abomination that looked like her husband. It should have cut him in half, but instead the sword passed right through him, impacting hard with the ground as it lodged itself firmly in the earth. Shadow Harrow backhanded Sarai’s head harder than any human could hit and she sprawled backwards across the ground. She blacked out.

Sarai awoke to her son’s voice loudly screaming. 

“RAYLA!”

She quickly sat up and looked around. Shadow Harrow was walking towards the unconscious body of the elf, his sword slightly bent, but back in his hands. Her son stood right next to her, and Sarai had no idea what to make of what she was seeing. The air around Callum shimmered and twinkled like starlight, and an outline of a young adult man appeared before her eyes, superimposed over her son. Both drew a glowing rune in midair and called out “Aspiro!”

A strong gust of wind blew from Callum over through Shadow Harrow. His smokey form dissipated, sword clattering to the ground next to the elf.

The twinkling around her son and the young man began to subside. “So… tired…” her son said, collapsing to the ground next to her, unconscious. Still breathing.

The outline of the young man, who couldn’t have been older than his early twenties, and looked an  _ awful _ lot like her son, turned around and looked down at her, clearly exhausted himself. She could hear desperation in his voice as he began speaking. “Mom, I know this is all super weird, but please please please don’t hurt Rayla, she’s a good…” The figure faded from existence. 


	2. Sky

“Callum?!” Rayla awoke with a start, sitting up. 

Her head and stomach objected sharply to her sudden movement, and she fell back onto the… bed? Her head definitely landed on a pillow, and this felt like a very nice bed. She forced herself to blink, take a few deep breaths, and not throw up. As her head cleared, she realized someone was speaking to her.

“Er, sorry,” Rayla said, “Could you repeat that?”

  
“Callum’s fine, thanks to you.”

Rayla breathed a sigh of relief. She turned her head slowly and saw Sarai sitting on a wooden chair next to the large four poster bed in the center of the room, both of the queen’s hands wrapped in bandages. This was Ez’s room -- the royal bedroom. But it was set up differently than she remembered. Not Ez’s room yet. Harrow and Sarai’s. She realized she was in a small daybed near the wall, and that she couldn’t see anyone else in the room. Which probably meant guards were out of her line of sight, behind her. She was surprised to realize she wasn’t restrained in any way.

“Are you okay?” Rayla asked.

“I’ll live,” Sarai said. “How are you feeling?” Rayla could see both concern and calculation in Sarai’s eyes. It was disconcerting. Almost like looking at Callum’s expression on Sarai’s face. The queen was trying to figure out if she was friend or foe.

Rayla stopped to assess herself before answering. She was pretty sure she was concussed, and her memories stopped right as Shadow Harrow had formed out in the courtyard, which didn’t account for how she had come to be in this bed. She wiggled her toes and her fingers, and both seemed to work, and she no longer felt any need to vomit. Basically everything hurt, but the upside to everything hurting was she knew she could feel everything. She felt… weaker than she expected to. “I’ll live.”

The two women locked eyes and Rayla looked away. “So how did I get here?”

“Honestly, I was hoping you knew. I’ve never even met a moonshadow elf before, much less one wearing the Katolan crest. My son called you Rayla?”

“Aye.”

The silence that followed was awkward.

“That’s a nice engagement ring. I didn’t realize elves used them,” said the queen.

_ Ahh fuck me. _ The engagement ring Callum had given her had been his mum’s first engagement ring. The one Callum’s birth father had given her. And she hadn’t even hidden it, nor the wedding band. Stupid! Sarai clearly recognized it and was offering her a chance to explain. Rayla had paused too long to play dumb now.

But what could Rayla even tell her?

“I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you’re askin’.”

“I know.” Of course she’d checked her copy of the ring while Rayla had been out. “Do you know why I’m interested in it?”

“Aye.”

More awkward silence. 

“Do you have an explanation?”

Rayla let loose a sharp bark of laughter. She couldn’t help herself. “A reasonable explanation? No.”

The queen sighed and looked out the window. “Look, I don’t think you’re my enemy. Am I --”

“I’m not.”

“There is clearly some very weird magic going on here.” Sarai said. “Even beyond... well, you… and the creatures we encountered in the courtyard… and then when Ca… this feels almost like a dream, but not exactly. At the beginning of the night, the moon was almost full, and now it’s practically a new moon.”

“Well, I guess that explains me feeling like extra crap.”

Sarai looked at her curiously.

“Moonshadow elf. The phase of the moon has some… effect.”

“Ah. That makes sense. But how could the moon have changed? Can moonshadow elves do that?”

Rayla laughed again. “No, that’s way outside the bounds of any magic I know of.”

The silence this time was much less uncomfortable, and after around a minute, Rayla moved to slowly sit up in bed.

The queen broke the silence. “Listen, I can’t promise I’ll fully believe you but… I’m open to less than reasonable explanations at the moment. For all of this.”

Rayla weighed her options and how she thought the queen might respond. Glancing around the room, Rayla realized with a start that there were no guards. She did want to share what she knew, but there was no way Sarai would --

“Rayla, after you were knocked unconscious, I woke up to Callum yelling your name. The air around him was… twinkling, and a young man appeared, who looked about your age, but was made out of stars? The two of them cast some spell that got rid of the shadow creature. A spell that didn’t seem to be dark magic. Then he asked me not to hurt you before he vanished.”

Sarai hugged her knees to her chest and looked down at the sleeping form of four year old Callum.

“He also called me mom.”

Rayla blew out a sigh and laid her head back against the wall. “Well, I can see how that might inspire some big, big feelings.” Sarai’s head turned sharply back to Rayla.

Oops.

The queen’s tone was measured. “That’s an interesting way to phrase it. My family has --”

“Big feelings time,” they said together.

“I know I owe you an explanation. I just… it’s weirder than you think.”

Sarai smirked. “I dunno, it seems pretty weird. Is this real?”

“Sort of?” replied Rayla. “We’re in a place called the Star Ne… well, the name doesn’t really matter. And Callum’s the only one who’s really here. We’re both asleep in our own beds. Our… spirits? Consciousness? Souls? Were drawn here by Callum, accidentally. This place is rich in Star magic, and sort of exists outside of time? Callum’s tried explainin’ it to me, and I don’t really get it.”

“So you’re saying you’re from… the future?”

“Yes and no. You’re from the past, I’m from the future, and Callum is from the present? Present Callum is nineteen.”

Sarai looked at the sleeping four year old in the bed. “That’s… hard to believe.”

“That’s not present Callum. But it is Callum? Because he’s actually in this place, he kind of exists as all ages at once? Like I said, it’s very strange and I don’t really get it. Star magic tends to drive most people crazy if they look too closely at it.”

“And you’re telling me my son is in the middle of it?”

“Your son is a very special man. I know you know him as a boy, and four year old Callum can’t quite take care of himself yet, but nineteen year old Callum? He’s smart, and kind, and brave and the best mage I’ve ever known. I’ve seen him accomplish so many things people thought were impossible. He can do this. From my perspective, he already has.” Rayla realized she had a dopey smile on her face, and found Sarai looking at her with a razed eyebrow and a smirk.

It was eerily identical to Amaya’s look when teasing her.

“Oh like you hadn’t figured out we mean somethin’ to each other!”

“I mean, it’s certainly cute,” the queen replied, her eyes lingering on Rayla’s rings.

“For what it’s worth, both your sons are amazin’, even if I might obviously favor Callum a wee bit.”

Sarai looked down at her belly and rested her hand on it. “So he’s… okay? The doctor wasn’t sure.”

“Yeah, Ezran’s fine. Remember, we’re not exactly here, exactly, even though it feels real.”

“Ezran, huh? I like it.”

Oops again.

“I should probably stop talking now.”

“Worried you’ll mess up the past?”

“I don’t think it works like that, but I’m not really sure. Remember, we’re both asleep right now, so we’ll remember this like a dream, if at all. Still, best not to take chances.”

Sarai nodded.

“So you believe me then?”

“Believe is a strong word, but that makes about as much sense as the rest of tonight. I don’t see anything disproving any of what you said. It also… feels right? It’s difficult to explain.”

Rayla smiled. “Maybe you know it with your heart, but your head and hands need time to catch up?”

Sarai returned the smile. “Maybe.”

“Err, random question… do you smell jelly tarts right now?”

“No. I sadly don’t.”

“Yeah, they kinda smell like moonberry jelly tarts anyway. I think I’m about to be woken up, which probably means I’ll vanish from this place.”

“Rayla! What’s happening to Callum?!”

Rayla jumped up out of her bed almost fell over as her vision blurred and her head spun from getting up too quickly. As her head cleared a few moments later, she rushed over towards Callum. Starlight shimmered around him in bed and he was clearly, if slowly, growing up in front of her. Instead of four, he now looked like he was at least eight, and still aging.

Rayla could feel herself beginning to wake up, and as she looked down, she could see her own form beginning to look almost translucent. She reached out towards Callum, and as her hand touched the starlight around him, she saw a jumble of images. The Key of Aaravos. A storm. Villads, the blind captain. An anxious sail with her husband’s face. She saw her younger self worriedly kneeling over Callum as he was unconscious and connecting to the Sky arcanum. 

She drew her hand back sharply and Callum looked like a young teenager now. Like when they first met.

Rayla realized with a start that he’d told her years ago about speaking to his mom while connecting to the Sky primal.

“Sarai, listen to me. Callum is goin’ to be okay. When he starts strugglin’ to breath, don’t freak out. Just wake him up. He can do this. You can help. Be here for him. Believe in him.” Rayla rested her fading hand on Sarai’s shoulder. The contact felt light, almost like her hand was about to pass right through the queen.

Sarai looked back at Rayla with wide eyes. “You’re…”

“Wakin’ up, which means I’m vanishin’ from this place. I’m sorry I can’t stay. But you can do this.”

Sarai moved to sit on the bed, as the aging Callum was beginning to stir, the starlight washing over Sarai’s hands before it faded away entirely. Sarai began removing the bandage, startled. Her hands looked healed.  _ Definitely the weirdest primal. _

“Right. I guess tonight’ll just keep getting weirder. I’ve got this. And Rayla?” Sarai asked, making eye contact with the elf again.

“Yeah?”

“I look forward to meeting you.”

Rayla did her best to put on a smile as she faded from the Star Nexus.

\----

End.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter will be much less fighting.


End file.
